GRACE SLAWSKI reporter
West Springfield High School
Whether or not it is the winter or summer, school or no school, none of us can escape the inevitable: teenagers all over the country are going to use the Internet.
Some may use the Internet for practical uses, like to do research for a school paper. Others may use features to talk to people on-line, such as AIM, or Web sites with profiles, like MySpace or Facebook.
However, opening the doors to these more complicated communication systems doesn't come without complications, as there are many issues that arise with on-line communicating without any parental consent or supervision.
One of the major issues to deal with doesn't attack a person directly, or a family directly. They lurk in the shadows, staying as secret as possible. This issue stalks people right to their own homes.
I am talking about Internet predators.
Internet predators are generally males over the age of eighteen, who skulk in cyberspace, in chat rooms, and on Web sites such as MySpace. They will talk to teenagers, mainly targeting underage teenage girls, and try to act as if they are their friends. They will do anything to get information, vulnerability, and trust from their victims. Once they have this, they have all the information they need to stalk, rape, and even possibly kill their victims.
Now generally, stalking occurs in more severe cases, but it has happened enough in this modern day and age to become a serious issue.
Now, most parents would say that their children would never actually be gullible enough to trust a stranger online. They were taught as children to never talk to and trust strangers.
But parents should get ready to be surprised. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Justice Department, one out of every five children in the U.S. between ten and seventeen said they had sexual confrontations with someone online in the year 2000.
Granted, it has been proven that the more targeted age group to be sexually harassed online are minors between the ages of eleven and fifteen. But that doesn't mean people older or younger aren't affected.
Now parents or close friends of any teenager, if you are afraid that you know someone that could be talking to these predators online, there are signs that you can determine based on the person's actions and personality.
Is the person spending over an hour and a half on the Internet not doing any research or academic studies? If so, they are more likely to be talking to someone on AIM, MySpace, etc that isn't their age. Also, they could be engaged in cybersex, which is a very unsafe practice.
Is the person generally a loner? If they are, they seem to talk to strangers online more because they are either shy in real life or have no one to talk to. Also, if they don't do sports or any extracurricular activity, they are more likely to be talking to strangers as well to pass the time.
Parents especially, are you looking at the phone bill and seeing unknown numbers? If you go to check on the teen while they are on the computer, do they instantly shut off the computer monitor, or close out all of the windows they were using? Are you even getting random packages being sent to your house? These are all signs that the teenager is interacting with someone, and they want to keep it a secret. This also means the teenager is giving away personal information, like their address or phone number. Is their general behavior becoming secretive as well? Because if they seem to be pulling out a lot of excuses for what is happening that sound bogus, don't buy it.
There are ways to solve the problem before the issue escalates. There are softwares and parental controls that block off certain Web sites the teenager can use, and can monitor what they are saying online. You can contact your Internet provider and get copies of all the e-mails that are being sent. But also, don't forget to always talk to the teenager, because talking to them is always the best way to make sure they won't be sneaking away in cyberspace.
If you find that the teenager has given away personal information, don't be afraid to call the police.
Having to deal with an Internet Predator is unbelievably stressful. However, most teenagers feel they are invincible from them. It happens to a lot of people, and there is no way that you can be certain it won't happen to you if you don't take precautions.
So, readers, take my word for it, don't talk to strangers online. Trust me, I made that mistake, and I put a lot on the line that hurt my family and me. So don't trust anyone you don't know in cyberspace because it won't be your happy ever after.